Campgrounds Custer, SD

[clayway]

Our first trip to this area, Custer looks like a good point for all the local attractions.
Looks like there are several campgrounds,
Any recommmendations would be greatly appreciated.

[gswcgi]

Stayed at Horse Thief for 5 days and really liked it.

[pjsky]

Big Pine is a very good one.

[Horsedoc]

there is only one dump station in the CSP and that is at Gamelodge at the east end of the park. Take that into consideration if you plan to stay there longer than a couple of days. Same caustion with water. There is water in all the CGs, but not at sites, mostly at the shower house or maybe a central location someplace in the CG. We hosted two years at Stockade N and S and there has been some improvements made since we were there last but they really need to add a dump station on the west side of the park. We love the park and have a lot of friends there.
If we were visting the area this year for more than a few days, we would stay in a privately owned park outside CSP and do our visting with friends by driving in.
There are a number of adequate CGs in and around Custer city that will have FHUs if you need or want them.

[CardinalCamper]

We stayed at Beaver Lake Campground for 6 days a few weeks ago nice campground.
Nice owner and workampers,great service,its also close to the attractions in the area.

[Georgew48]

We love Big Pine. The only down side is no pool if that is a concern for you. This year we are staying at Rafter J on the Island. Lots of nice campgrounds in the area. We really like the Custer area and the little town of Custer. Even during Sturgis bike week, Custer is less crowded.

[eHoefler]

I have stayed at Beaver Lake, real nice folks running it, well laid out, spacious sites, very big rig friendly.

[dodge_guy]

If you are looking to be centrally located in the hills i would recomend the hill city area. This gives you a one hour radius for sight seeing the entire area. We stayed at Horse Thief Campground. very nice place located off of Needles HWY.

[truepath]

Custer is a good place to base out of for the south hills. It is close to the big time attractions (Rushmore and Crazy Horse) and also lesser known, but excellent ones like the Custer wildlife loop, the mammoth site near Hot Springs, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, etc.

You can't go wrong with any of the Custer State Park campgrounds, but I agree with Booster that Stockade Lake South is probably the best if you are looking for one off the beaten path. If they are full, Bismark Lake campground (a forest service facility) is right across the street and is a little cheaper and nice, but without much for hookups. I've stayed at Big Pine which is on the west side of the City of Custer and is very convenient. As mentioned above, it is a nice campground. I've stayed at many other campgrounds around Custer and have never run into any that I would stay away from.

[TexasShadow]

get your reservations NOW if you can. there are 3 campgrounds that are sort of off the main track.
1. bluebell is a few miles south of highway 16 on the state park scenic loop.
2. stockade lake south is back off the highway at the back of the lake.
3. sylvan lake is up on the north end of the park.
the others are strung along highway 16.
all of the campgrounds are nice, all have some shade or a lot of shade, all have some elec sites and water and bathrooms. Game Lodge is the only one with a dump station.
good luck, hope you can get a reservation.

[southernsky]

We stayed at Big Pine Campground last yr. Nice quiet park with room and full hookups. Go to RVParkReviews.com for more parks and info.

[booster]

clayway wrote:
Our first trip to this area, Custer looks like a good point for all the local attractions.
Looks like there are several campgrounds,
Any recommmendations would be greatly appreciated.

If you want to stay in Custer State Park, you may be too late to get a site, it fills very quickly. If you do go to the park, we prefer Stockade South campground. Smaller, quieter, very peaceful. There are also a couple of campgrounds between the city of Custer and the park, which looked pretty nice, but we didn't stay in them.